Valve have released a free version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, although it’s more like a demo. As detailed in their latest patch notes, the free version of the ultra-popular esports FPS is limited to offline play only (including bots) and watching other players through their highly flexible GOTV spectator mode.

This update also permanently retires the old ‘legacy’ UI, in favour of the fancy new Panorama style, shown above, although this seems to be a point of some contention.

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Thank God you’re here. Listen, I don’t want to over-hype things, but this might be the most essential and life-changing article you ever read. Because if you only click through to read this, you will LITERALLY find out the top ten (nine) grossing games on Steam last week, and seriously, if you bought one of them, you will feel so bloody validated.

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European Dota 2 team OG triumphed in this year s The International, netting a whopping $11.2 million ( 8.7 million) grand prize. They beat out China-based team PSG.LGD to take the win.

TI8 boasted the largest prize pool of any esports event to date, with teams competing for part of a $25.4 million ( 20m) total. The second place finishers still walked away with $4 million ( 3.1m), which should help to ease the sting a little.

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Valve s MOBA Dota 2 is having a busy couple of weeks. The finals of its esports championship The International are tonight, and as part of the celebration they ve announced two new heroes, one of whom is playable now.

Grimstroke, named for the fact that uses ink from his runebinding brush to channel vile forces, is currently available, while Mars, who appears to be very much based on his Roman god namesake, will be arriving in the coming months. You can see both characters in the announcement video below:

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With over $25 million ( 19m) now in the prize pool for Dota 2‘s The International tournament, Valve need a certain level of hype and energy to match that. Enter Gabe Newell, the softly-spoken CEO, knife-collecting uncle, and megacorp mascot. A new voice pack for Dota 2 has Newell deadpan through announcing large numbers of murders, delivering lines including “Megakill”, “Monsterkill”, “More than two kills but less than four kills”, “Ownage”, and “Please e-mail me at gaben@valvesoftware.com and let me know about your rampage” with characteristic drama. See him bring the energy to the booth in this video skit below.

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While Twitch still seems a popular venue to watch Dota 2 mega-tourney The International, Valve have rolled out a few upgrades to Steam Broadcasting. If it tickles your fancy, you can now watch the massive esport event on SteamTV, complete with Steam friends integration and the option to invite your regular Dota posse to watch the match with you in a private chat (text or voice) instance. While focused on Dota 2 for now – introducing some game-specific features to the streaming interface – Valve plan on extending “Watch Party” features to all games after the tourney. (more…)

The grim effects of the Steam Summer Sale are finally wearing off, and we’ve got a bunch of new entries this week! Along with, of course, the usual hoary old guard of dreary regulars. So hold my hand as I guide you through the most exciting article of your life.

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While other esports games continually rework and re-imagine themselves, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive moves slow and steady. New weapons and systems are tentatively introduced once in a blue moon, so it’s not surprising that its latest addition feels conservative. Absent since Counter-Strike: Source passed the torch to CS:GO, the now-silenced MP5 submachine gun is now available for use in offline, official casual and deathmatch modes, though Valve reckon it’s not quite ready for the competitive circuit yet.

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While Black Mesa may be rebuilding Half-Life‘s world on a slightly more modern foundation, modder James “MrGnang” Cockburn reckons there’s some life in Valve’s old GoldSrc engine yet. Half-Life: Echoes is an impressive mod released last Friday, putting the player in the shoes of a scientist elsewhere in the Black Mesa facility when everything goes to hell. Cue the usual running, gunning, fighting soldiers and weird aliens, all while marvelling at some genuinely impressive architecture that I just hadn’t thought possible. Just be warned – this one pulls no punches.

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Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Team Fortress 2 jumping. It’s a lot like normal TF2, only rather the shooting people the goal is to propel yourself skywards using explosively powered movement techniques on custom designed maps. Yeah, it’s nothing like normal TF2.

Jumpers have tournaments too though. They’ve spent the past month hopping through three separate events in the Beginnings 5 competition. With the competition now over, they’ve settled down again – and left us with some impressive aerial highlights. I’ve gathered the victors’ videos below, and got a couple of the jumpers to sit still long enough to tell me about why they do what they do.

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